Posts Tagged ‘Goh Meng Seng’

Either that or he one super blur spastic cat. Whatever, he’s one of the PAP’s most effective weapons in it’s attempts to slime the Oppo as a bunch of nutty opportunists.

Further to Merdeka Package shows how smart scholars are, I had tot Goh Meng Seng was trying to be like Alex Tan (Mrs Chiam said he was like a son) of States Times, S’pore Herald etc etc: a purveyor of fake news. This appeared in TRE under his name (emphasis mine):

Back in 2018, the PAP boasted that the Net Investment Return Contribution (NIRC) has more than doubled from $7b in 2009 to $15.9b in 2018.

However, the NIRC for 2019 has dramatically dropped to $3.6b in – which is about half of 2009′s NIRC when the world was facing an unprecedented global financial crisis!

Under the rules, the government can contribute up to 50% of total investment returns to the budget. Hence, there are two possibilities here.

The first is that it may have decided to use much less than the maximum 50% just to show that there is “deficit” and this is thus an “expansionary budget”. It might even be the case of political posturing to show that the government needs to raise GST to 9% because of “deficits”!

The second possibility is that our Sovereign Wealth Funds – GIC and Temasek Holdings – and MAS had suffered unprecedented losses which resulted in this dramatic drop in the NIRC!

Either way, it does not look too good.

These are the questions my team and I will pose to the PAP government if we are elected into parliament.

Goh Meng Seng

The NIRC is $17.2bn (up 4%). So what was Meng Seng smoking in his opium pipe? Ganja? Or Grandpa Xi’s dried turds? Too poor to buy opium?

Seriously either he was faking the NIRC number or he can’t read while at the same time smoking ganja or dried turd. Whatever, do we want him and his fellow clowns in parly? Remember he said:

These are the questions my team and I will pose to the PAP government if we are elected into parliament.

To be fair to him, this later appeared:

Correction:

The Straits Time reported that there will be a “basic deficit of $7.1B” and after taking into account of NIRC, the deficit is reduced to $3.5B.

After double checking the figures, this statement is misleading.

The deficit of $3.5B is the result of taking in BOTH the NIRC and the Special Transfers (all those goodies) into account.

The actual NIRC is $17.2B(up 4%) while the Special Transfer is $15.3B (up 70%).

My apology. I should not have trusted the Straits Time fully and should counter check on the figures.

Goh Meng Seng

So either Goh Meng Seng chickened out of lying or double confirm twice over twice over that he’s a double cock. Can’t get his facts right first time and giving a gibberish excuse for not getting it right first time. Other people have read the ST report (self included) and got the correct numbers from the ST report.

Whatever, do we want him and his fellow clowns in parly? Remember he said:

These are the questions my team and I will pose to the PAP government if we are elected into parliament.

And waz he doing relying on the constructive, nation-building ST for facts? Shouldn’t he be relying on TOC, State Times, S’pore Herald and other cybernut alt news outlets? And these are free to boot, unlike ST.

Lim Tean, lawyer and leader of opposition party, People’s Voice Party visited the Teck Whye Market this morning (Saturday) and said that the party intends to field a team at the Choa Chu Kang GRC.

…

The Choa Chu Kang Group-Representative Constituency is currently held by the People’s Action Party and helmed by the Minister of Health Gan Kim Yong. The former party which contested against Gan’s team in the General Election 2015 was People’s Power Party led by Goh Meng Seng and prior to that, National Solidarity Party led by Sebastian Teo in GE2011.

Under Oppo chop system, Goh Meng Seng “owns” area even if voters give him the finger, which they did in last GE.

We always hear how out of touch PAP Elites are from the reality on the ground. But does it mean that all opposition politicians are not out of touch?

We always see PAP and Opposition politicians start to “walk the ground” when elections is looming. But how does that help for politicians from both sides in understanding the ground Issues other than providing the “hardworking” image or even “place chopeing” intentions?

I always tell reporters this when they ask when am I going to start “campaigning” :

My campaigning has NEVER stopped since I was in NUS!

Some people chose to be “suddenly vocal” when they started to have interests in contesting in their FIRST elections. Where were they before that?

They will start to “walk the ground” to gain “visibility”. Some are even worse. They have never voice out anything substantial, whether in or out of parliament in between general elections but would suddenly make a lot of noise just months before next elections!

And this applies to BOTH PAP and Opposition politicians.

I like consistency because it gives me a better gauge of characters and inner intentions.

Some would think that “quietly walking the ground and knocking doors”, even kiss babies are enough to win votes. I do not believe in that. We are not just voting for door to door salesman or saleswomen. We are not voting for estate managers. But we are looking for people who have ideas and ideals which they could debate in parliament.

PAP has lots of resources and no matter what goodwill you could gain by knocking doors could easily be negated by all goodies they can throw at voters just before GE.

The only way to build a strong base of unwavering support is to change their minds and hearts permanently through a consistent evangelism of ideas and ideals.

I respect people like JBJ, Dr Chee, Tan Kin Lian and others who had never stopped talking about their ideas and ideals even they lost. Never mind if I agree with them 100%

Juz wondering why he only respects born losers like himself?

And why despite all his life long campaigning, in the last three GEs each time representing a different party in a different GRC, his share of the popular vote in percentage terms kept declining.

TRE reader described him

kanasai gms: August 11, 2015 at 8:44 pm (Quote) this GMS fella, i will not vote for him. what he wrote or spoke about to the man are all the obvious issues that had appeared in this forum, and other online media many times before.

i will not want a character like him to be my mp. people will not forget the way he kept sniping at Sylvia Lim (and her party), even at her private affairs. what a bast**d this guy is. He even condemn my football hero Quah Kim Song. Remember because of his big mouth people will also remember those negative and bad remarks that he said about NSP hor!

this is classic kaykian kanasai howtai fella! With a fucker like him who need enemies as the saying goes…lolol!

he is now trying to appear to be praising and appreciative of his mentor LTK. sorry man! he had said many bad thing that he should not about LTK. one “good” quote from LTK during his walkabout will not redeem him

baring that english is not his 1st language, look at the way he handle and present himself in front of reporters in the ST video. i dont see a leader and a mp in him. it is no wonder that he had to resigned from NSP.

Someone sure going to lose deposit if it’s a three cornered fight. Lim Tean can afford it. I know that in 2017, Lim Tean was renting a white-and-black SLA bungalow for S$15,000 a month. But then it’s alleged that Meng Seng got Grandpa Xi: Meng Seng wants us to kowtow to Xi.

Whatever, if their paths cross in the next two weeks, I doubt Meng Seng will say to Lim Tean “Kong Hee Fatt Choy” or its Mandarin equivalent.

With enemies like this, how can PAP ever lose its hegemony?

Vote wisely. This means not voting for Mad Dog, Lim Tean or Meng Seng . But do think of voting for good SDP, WP and Tan Cheng Bock teams if they impress you better than the PAPpies they are fighting against.

Meanwhile Terry’s Online Channel continues propagating its scepticism about what the PAP govt says on the dispute: (Fact: Terry said on FB that the dispute was over port limits, not territorial waters. Even M’sia says it’s about territorial waters. Whatever, at least Terry is not as mealy-mouthy as Meng Seng when it comes to agreeing with M’sia. Meng Seng while dissing the govt’s claims throws plenty of smoke so that he cannot be accused of being unpatriotic. Btw, I don’t doubt Terry’s patriotism, but have serious doubt that Meng Seng has the best interests of S’pore in his heart. )

Here are two facts that TOC AND Seng Meng are silent on.

JB port is only accessible via the eastern side of the Johor Straits, not via the western side of the Johor Straits where the Tuas dispute is happening. Of course when Tun’s crooked bridge is ever built, the situation may change. Until then, because the JB port is not accessible via Tuas area because of the causeway, the only reason M’sia is extending JB port’s waters in the Tuas area (West of JB port) is because Tun wants to annoy and hopefully bully S’pore.

Their silence is also deafening on the fact that the other M’sian unhappiness dating from their 1979 assertions has been proven to be a lot of rubbish by an int’l court: the Pedra Blanca dispute where S’pore won fair and square.

With S’poreans like Goh Meng Seng and those writing articles on the Tuas dispute in TOC, no wonder Tun thinks he can bully S’pore. A very early GE will prove him wrong.

this appeared on a friend’s FB wall posted by someone who says “PAP is always wrong”

All the jingoism coming only from the PAP government. Can you urge everyone in your group to tell the PAP government to stop their shrill jingoism? We just have to be adults around here.

He’s talking cock because it’s not “shrill jingoism” for the PAP govt to point out that there is an infringement of our sovereignty (all those M’sian vessels intruding intruding and remaining into our territorial waters) and “quietly but firmly stand our ground and stay united as one people” Unless pointing these infringements and “quietly but firmly stand our ground and stay united as one people,” is shrill jingoism”: only an extremely nutty cynernut will beliive this. Btw, this cybernut likes to suggest to people to join oppo parties even though he isn’t a member of any.

I have refrained from putting up formal position on the current spat and controversy of the territorial water dispute because I want to make I have enough information and research on the whole subject before I formulate my views.

I am First a Singaporean and my loyalty and allegiance will always pledged towards my country, Singapore. I would even lay down my life for my country in whatever ways.

But I am also an opposition politician whose job is to keep the ruling party PAP in checks and balance.

Trust is the enemy of checks. Thus I have little trust in PAP and won’t take every words they say as golden truth without verification or critically examined. That is my job and role as an Opposition politician.

When I read and watch how PAP Ministers put up rally calls of “unity” and such, I get extremely skeptical. As Singaporeans, we will definitely unite and defend our country when we have a JUST cause.

The Trust factor in me deteriorated extremely fast when I read what the Transport Minister put up in his press conference. His rhetorics are actually contradictory to the illustration map which he puts up.

First he claims that our land reclamation did not intrude into Malaysian Territory. But the map he presented demonstrated otherwise. One small part of the Malaysian 1979 territorial claim has been infringed by the reclaimed land at Tuas.

Of course, PAP government’s position is that Singapore does not recognize nor agree to this 1979 unilateral boundary claim made by Malaysia. Thus, to PAP Government, we will disregard the so call infringement of Malaysian Territorial Water.

The map shown by Khaw shows a few important lines. One, is the 1995 boundary border agreed by both Singapore and Malaysia. Beyond that last point of 1995 boundary, the map didn’t show any OFFICIAL boundary but only the 1979 boundary which Singapore had refused to agree to.

The question running through my mind is, where is our Singapore border if there is no Officially agreed border between Singapore and Malaysia?

That set me to the little quest to seek the answer to this mystery.

It is an important question because it would mean totally different things. If Malaysian vessels have intruded into our Territorial Waters which has already been delimit or agreed upon between the countries in 1995, then it would be straight out blatant intrusion of our sovereignty and we Singaporeans have all rights to fight back with all means, without much question.

But if the intrusion of the Malaysian vessels into the water which has no clear boundary set out in any official agreement between the two countries, then the approach would be different.

If there is no officially agreed boundary in that part of water territory, it will bound to have all sorts of conflicting claims. The only way to settle it once and for all, is to take the opportunity to open up talks to formalize the Territorial borders.

It is in our interests to do so, especially when our mega port at Tuas is going to be built and operational in the years to come.

The mega port will need a safe port limit which doesn’t lie in controversial conflicting claims.

If there is a need for talk to finalize the Territorial border in this part of the region, then we must careful not to let irrational nationalistic sentiments to be incited.

No fruitful negotiations can be done or achieved through media or media war of words of rhetoric. Worse still, stoking fervent nationalistic sentiments by making war cries or provocative military moves.

Unless we are bloody sure that we will definitely go to war for reasons of blatant violation of agreed borders, then it would be a good tactic to make such war rally cry.

War should always be the last resort. Singapore can not afford to go to war with anyone too lightly, for issues which doesn’t critically affect our survival. Example, cutting off our water supply or setting up sea and air routes blockade etc. For these issues, we will definitely initiate War.

But if we are not really ready for war, responsible citizens and politicians should not incite unnecessary fervent nationalistic emotions which could hurt our long term relationship with our neighbors.

Malaysia should stop the provocative acts in this disputed water territory by pulling out its vessels and assets while Singapore PAP government should stop the provocative military mobilization and propaganda during this sensitive time. Both government should then start a new fresh round of negotiations and talk to finalize the border along this water territory.

Goh Meng Seng

All I can suggest is that he goes read what the minister said and not he thinks he said.

With enemies like him and the other two, the PAP govt can really afford not to have any friends.

Our management software is ready and we won’t be held ransom by PAP attempt to control the management software

Goh Meng Seng

Or juz clowning around like Desmond Lim and Pwee?

Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) chairman Desmond Lim said his party has remained active in the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC since the 2015 GE , which saw the SDA garnering about 27 per cent of the vote in the constituency, an eight-percentage-point drop from its 2011 GE performance. “We’ve conducted our regular house to house visits, attending to resident’s needs and requests. We are ready for any snap elections,” said Mr Lim, 51.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) secretary-general Benjamin Pwee, 50, said it was premature to speculate when the next GE will be, but he said: “The DPP stands ever ready to field good credible candidates for the coming GE.”

As to why the Bishan and Marina families hate Goh Meng Seng, it’s because because if he had his way there wouldn’t be today’s Bishan Park. After GE 2011, he KPKBed that the PAP town council running Bishan was squandering money which the town council didn’t have to develop Bishan Park.

As usual the talk cock, sing king promised to monitor developments there and highlight the cock-ups. He never did, But to be fair to him, he may have realised that he was wrong about the lack of money. But that would be a first, Meng Seng realising that he got things wrong.

Coming back to the otters: Pa and Ma Bishan otters who migrated from Johor would never have had Bishan Park as a home base if the PAP hadn’t developed the park against Goh Meng Seng’s advice.

For those who don’t follow the otter tales, the Bishan family (FT Pa, Ma and their S’pore born kids) kicked the Marina Bay family (true blue S’poreans though descended from FT otters also) out of Marina Bay and moved there Eventually the Marina Bay otters found their way to the Lower Peirce Reservoir and now regularly visit the now vacated Bishan Park.

Coming back to Meng Seng. The adult Bishan and Marina otters tell misbehaving pups that if they are naughty Meng Seng will eat them.

When I wrote TOC misrepresents facts yet again, Chris Kuan told me that the writer of the TOC piece I was rubbishing was written by a friend. He was right. I was surprised because when we were in regular contact, he was a sensible person who while he had issues with many policies of the PAP govt (public tpt, healthcare, CPF, pay and pay attitude, ministerial salaries and greedy grassroot leaders) he wasn’t an anti-PAP cybernut, he gave the PAP govt credit where it was due like in education: instilling analytical thinking.

Well I sure hope he goes for treatment before he becomes like Goh Meng Seng.

Going by a recent FB exchange, one can reasonably conclude that Goh Meng Seng has a symptom that is a strong indicator of dementia: inability to remember facts.

He forgot who was his team’s proposer at the last GE. He tried to slimeball Terry Xu by asking whether Terry was present at the nomination centre. Terry pointed out that he was his assentor. Goh said that he didn’t notice Terry’s presence because he was really busy that day, and didn’t have time for petty details (read low life).

Then Terry kicked Meng Seng’s balls:

sorry I was not the assentor. I was the proposer. And that’s even worse, cause you should know the importance of the proposer.

Importance of Assentor and Proposer

[A] Proposer and/or Assenter has to sign the nomination papers (and maybe even give an oath before a Commissioner)? This was usually done before entering the nomination center.

So I struggle to understand how a candidate can forget who did or did not show up at the nomination centre. If any of those named in the nomination papers didn’t show up, the nomination papers would have been rejected.

Only “sick” and “Crooked” people will perceive what Tun does was a “deliberate causing of trouble” !

These group of “sick & crooked” people only “thinks” about themselves and the “gain” that they stand to lose !

Shame on Pappy and Cynical !

On the contrary,…I would see what Tun is “doing” is “cleaning up the system” and “getting rid of crooks” !

Somebody should “count himself lucky” as TUN has not embarked into “investigating” the Tanjong Pakar station and the rail corridor “deal”……it is quite “pausible” tht that deal isn’t very “cleanly” done too !

And

Cut the Food supplies and cut the water…..and Sinkapore will “sink” !

If Tun is wanting to “cause trouble”….he would have done these acts long time ago !

CI,….don’t be too “cocky” !

The fact is Sinkapore is “dangerously dependent” on our Frens next door for Food Security !!!

From 1m to 2m, population ( last time)……we could still depend on our own Food supplies….but all of our own Chickens and Pigs are Gone….all of our Vege farms are gone ?

And our Population has gone to 7m ????

You really think that Pigs from Batam and Imports from Sea and air could “sustain” Sinkapore ????

You must be kidding to fly in Bottles of Mineral waters too ?

Hydeflux “hyped” is gone and “going to die”…water from desalination just cause water price hike ….so how ????

Who “Wins”,…who “loses” ???

Do you think our highly and obscenly paid Ministers “feel any pinch” for price increases ??

Do you think that when Food shortage happens here,…who gets to “feed and eat” from our “limited” local produce first ???

You meh ?????

More likely Holy Jinx and Sons and Sissy husband will be the first to get it !

Lets be “REALISTIC” lah,….CI,….don’t talk rubbish to “bluff” the people !

And Mad Dog, Meng Seng, Ben Pwee and other members of the Coalition of the Spastics where are the free durians? After all didn’t SDP say that everything will be free when it and its friends rule S’pore? So what about giving free durians as down-payment?

Durians are cheap now. Talk is even cheaper. Right Lim Tean, Mad Dog, Meng Seng, Ben Pwee and the other spastics?

Well going by what Lim Tean is now saying, it looks like Lim Tean will be joining M Ravi in getting treated for mental health problems. (Fyi, M Ravi is working for Lim Tean, so maybe he infected Lim Tean? Bit him?)

I’m exaggerating?

“Our alliance must strive to form the next Government in the upcoming General Election (GE),” said former National Solidarity Party (NSP) chief Lim Tean, who is seeking to form a new party. Singapore’s next GE must be held by 2021.

Writing on Facebook, Mr Lim added: “The winds of change are here and they have buffeted the world for the past two years… Those who try to suggest that what happened in the West and now Malaysia cannot possibly happen in Singapore are myopic and in denial.”

Who other than cybernuts (think TRE funder and tax dodger Oxygen) thinks that PAP will lose power in next GE? There’s a good chance that Aljunied with repent. And the PAP has handicapped itself by saying GST sure to go up after GE.

Meanwhile,

PPP’s Mr Goh — who has had his fair share of electoral setbacks — said the effort to come together stemmed from the realisation among the smaller opposition parties that they can no longer go it alone.

“If we continue to do things (as we did) in the past, we will not get different results,” he said. “The fact is that our fortunes and destinies are linked… We cannot do without each other.”

He added: “If you don’t try, you won’t know”. “It cannot be worse than the status quo.”

What next, pigs can fly? He’ll attack the PAP more than he attacks WP?

What’s more for someone who was really unhappy in 2006 GE that Auntie and not him was leading the WP Aljunied GRC team, it’s surprising to hear him disagree

that egos would get in the way.

“If we are all egomaniacs, we won’t be sitting on the same table… All the leaders have their differences in their ideologies, policy-wise and how things should be done, but I do not think they are so egoistic as to say they can do it all by themselves,” he said.

“We understand that we cannot do it alone and we need to unite and depend on each other for our future success.”

Mr Goh, for one, said he has no qualms taking a backseat. “The back-end is as important as the front… I do not see anything bad about that,” he said.

Well let’s see what happens if he’s asked to f-off:

[S]ome may also need to stand down and serve from the backroom if it is for the good of the country.

…

I believe that the men and women I met yesterday, were more than willing to make way for better men and women who would stand in their place. They have guts. They have put themselves out there.

Further to Meng Seng doesn’t know his Chinese history, here’s more evidence that he was BSing about Chinese history: that China is a really peace-loving nation. It’s like any other major nation: expanded from one area by conquering and killing the neighbours. No difference from US of A, UK, France, Russia, Germany, Iran etc

We have an example of what happens when large amounts of Chinese take over another land already occupied by non-Chinese people. In the 16th century, the Qing dynasty defeated the Ming dynasty, so 30,000 Ming dynasty remnants retreated to Taiwan (where the native population was believed to be about 100,000) and formed the Kingdom of Tungning. The Dutch were already there though but were kicked out by the Chinese/Japanese Ming loyalist Koxinga in history’s first seige between gunpowder armed Europeans and East Asians.

The Dutch may have already set an example for the Chinese on how to ‘deal’ with the native Taiwanese, as many had already been converted to Christianity. When Chinese forces won they went about re-educating natives from Christian to Confucian beliefs and replaced Churches with Confucian temples. The Dutch had already set a system of trade/exploitation of native resources too, which the Chinese continued. When the Qing dynasty took over Taiwan, they basically maintained the same system.

From these two different examples of Chinese colonies you can see how they might have interacted with the Americans. Taiwan gives an example of how Chinese attempted to assimilate/conquer the natives, Southeast Asia gives an example of how Chinese were assimilated by the native culture.

Brandon Li, I have enough of an education to know how to use Google and the library

The problem is that too many people accept the Chinese national myth that China is a peaceful nation that has never attacked others. This is patently false. China didn’t emerge from the primordial muck fully formed as the third largest nation on the planet. It became so large by conquering and integrating land that was inhabited by other peoples.

The first great conqueror of China was Ying Zheng, the king of Qin. Roughly contemporaneous with Alexander of Macedon, he conquered all the states of the North China Plain by 220 BC at age 38 and proclaimed himself Qin Shihuang. In the next few years, he campaigned southwards and expanded the Chinese world further than it had ever reached. By the time he died, the Qin Empire stretched from the edge of the Eurasian steppe into the jungles of Vietnam. This realm was similar in size to Alexander’s empire and had a similar aftermath. Neither empire outlasted its founder’s death for long, but although the expanded Hellenic world created by Alexander collapsed within 300 years, the Sinosphere continued to expand over millennia.

Later emperors would rule even larger polities. For example, Li Shimin, who founded the Tang Dynasty alongside his father whom he would go on to depose went on to rule an empire even larger than Rome’s. Tang soldiers occupied swathes Korea, the jungles of Vietnam, and even marched across thousands of miles of desert and mountains to subjugate territories in Afghanistan and Central Asia. Although the Tang never settled the Mongolian steppe to their north, they succeeded in annihilating the Eastern Turkic Khaganate that ruled it, eliminating the nomad threat for generations. All of this was accomplished in a single lifetime.

The Tang are in yellow while the subjugated polities on their borders are in brown

come out to join Grace Fu and Indranee Rajah (The reincarnation of the Wicked Witches of West and East from the Land of Oz?) in calling Auntie “dishonourable” etc. Already s/o JBJ has come out to slime Auntie and the WP (and to be fair the PAP) over Auntie’s remarks on “test ballons”.

Seriously for a supposed Oppo party leader, he (Meng Seng not s/o JBJ) spends more time attacking other Oppo parties’ leaders than the PAP.

Btw, in the above link, he slimes WP Low whom he called his sifu in the past. What an ungrateful apprentice*.

—————————-

Whatever he has form in sliming Auntie. Years ago when Auntie and Quah Kim Song became an item, when other S’poreans were wishing them well, he was sliming Auntie. Citing “the bigger picture”, he called her names for disgracing the Oppo by her relationship. Come on: Quah was a widower and Auntie was single. So waz wrong? But no Meng Seng slimed her.

So it’s really surprising that he is so quiet on this issue. Maybe thirty pieces of silver have yet to be paid into his bank account?

——————————–

*Btw, Goh Meng Seng was looking for apprentices after last GE

End of Journey Start from Fresh

I believe many opposition politicians from my generation feel the same way, we might have come to the end of our political journey in the sense that, in view of the current electoral results, we may not be walking into parliament during our lifetime.

However it doesn’t mean we should end here. It would be overly pessimistic that opposition politics will have no more hope. Politics is a long drawn battle.

We may have come to our end of journey but we have to lay the Foundation for the future generations of politicians and activists to take over the baton. We just have to pass it on.

So hang on there my fellow opposition politicians. We still have unfinished business to do a proper handover.

Actually I’m just being polite: the guy who helped (Was he paid? Or did he do it out of the goodness of his heart because he loved the PAP?) the PAP’s preferred candidate to win in PE 2011 by

— persuading TKL to run;

— then running a shambolic campaign for TLK;

— and then saying he had to go to HK for a job interview,

wants us to lick Xi’s ass, suck his [expletive deleted] and get screwed by Xi, all at the same time.

Don’t believe me? Here’s what he wrote:

Although we might not want to subject ourselves totally to China’s dominance but it would be naive to think that we could go head on against it, thinking that we should be more superior in any context.

Notice the dog whistles he’s sending that we must kowtow to Xi.

Lest I be accused of taking his statement out of context, here’s his piece telling us that China is the nice guy, not a bully. Everything that China did wrong should be blamed on the Mongols and Manchus who were not Chinese: not the Chinese. Btw, /www.quora.com/Do-Chinese-people-consider-the-Manchu-Qing-dynasty-to-be-Chinese-or-do-they-consider-it-to-be-an-invasion-like-the-Yuan-Dynasty.

I was a bit curious when I read about PM Lee’s praise of LTK’s speech. I actually bother to do a search and listen to his speech.

I was a bit shock when I heard him saying that China might become an “Imperialist Power” and behave like Japan during the Second World War! It cannot be the case that the negative nuance of such provocative suggestion could escape a seasoned Chinese educated politician like LTK!

Curiously, LTK didn’t mention much about European’s Colonialism nor the “Imperialist Dominance” of the Americans in the last century over Vietnam up till today’s world.

Imperialism exists throughout history and even in modern times, it still exists in many different forms.

But to use Japan as a corresponding example to China is basically an attempt to add salt to past wounds and mockery aimed at the Chinese government.

If these words come from some American or Western educated person, I would have just smiled or laughed away but for a person who is well verse in Chinese history, both modern and ancient history, to utter such words, is really socking and provocative.

The Chinese hated the Japanese for the invasion and atrocities done in WW II. To make comparison of China between them as potential Imperialist, is considered as a rude attempt to mock China. Such sensitivity should not escape a Chinese educated mind.

Japanese Imperialism started long before WWII when it annexed Korea. Due to geo-political reasons, Japanese had always harbor the intention of attacking and conquering China. Throughout history, many of the Chinese dynasties have been fighting off Japanese invasions or piracy along the eastern coast.

Except for the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, which was considered as a foreign dynasty set up by foreign invaders, most of the 5000 years of ancient Chinese dynasties were contended with their own immediate territories.

There were tributary systems set up in Chinese history but basically, these states were just left alone. Interesting enough, on the contrary, quite a number of Chinese dynasties were formed by “Foreign invaders” like the Mongolians, Manchurian and they were constantly invaded by the Western and Southern tribes.

To suggest China having Imperialistic tendency is basically a hypothesis without any basis or historical backing. Unlike Japan, historically speaking, Chinese has not shown any such ambition to rule the world. Chinese dynasties are mostly inward looking and sometimes, even Xenophobic which resisted interaction with foreign states. Chinese dynasties might have requested tributes from other states but that’s basically out of Imperial Egos more than anything else.

Westerners were the ones who created colonialism out of their Imperialism. Japanese learned from the Western powers. But China? Most of the time it was the victim of such Imperialist Colonialism.

I do not like one party rule in China as well as Singapore. I do not like Communist rule in China as well. [Err so how come he telling Honkies that they should kiss China’s ass? He’s making himself really unpopular among the progressives in HK.] But we have to look at the REAL ACTUAL context and refrain from direct agitation or provocation against the emerging powers like China.

When we recognize ourselves as just a small little tiny city state, then it would only be wise to stay focused on the balance.

We had subjected ourselves to British and American Imperialism before and we had swallowed it while maximizing every opportunities we could find in between. That’s the cruel reality we face throughout history.

The problem of Economic-Political dominance by any huge country or Super power is a common problem that small countries face throughout history. But very few will stick their heads out and get slammed in the end.

I would say that the problem lies with the stubborn mindset of “superiority” of the past which doesn’t want to change according to the dynamic change and shift of geo-economic and political balance.

Those in powers must realize that we are no longer “superior” in any terms over the “long backward China”. The feeling of uneasiness and threats is the result of the dissonance between past egoistic superiority mindset entrapped in current awe of a rapid emerging power in China.

Although we might not want to subject ourselves totally to China’s dominance but it would be naive to think that we could go head on against it, thinking that we should be more superior in any context.

For a start, such provocative speech by politicians should be avoided. We can show concern, worries or even urge for more effective strategies to deal with an emerging giant at our doorstep, but the last thing we need is to provoke it.

Goh Meng Seng

Btw, do remember that he’s a fan of Amos who says sex with children is OK. The above pix of Bozo’s brother was taken at a “Support Amos” do.

Want to slime WP Low, but kanna sai instead by TRE readers. I’m on their side.

Goh Meng Seng keeps on harping on how good life is in HK compared to S’pore. His daughter’s schooling and healhcare costs are cheaper* there. HK is Heaven, S’pore is Hell he implies.

Funny he doesn’t tell us that this is the 6th yr in a row that HK tops this index. It’s not uncommon for entire families to live in spaces less than 50 sq m. Btw, there are no “cage homes” — tiny bunks stacked atop each other and enclosed by metal grating — here.

Nothing heard on thr issue of housing affordability in HK by Memg Seng who prefers to talk cock about the golden dinar.

The PAP administration can do more to bring affordbility levels to those at the end of the 90s, early noughties: 15- 20 yrs of paying mortgages not the present 25 yrs. But hey let’s not pretend that S’pore isn’t too bad.

And remember GMS’s silence on HK people critical of China diappearing. They on his UFO? (He believes in the UFOs, having claimed to have seen one (or was it in one?)

Someone by the name of Ajay posted some analysis of the Oppo parties that’s worth a read http://www.tremeritus.com/2016/01/21/what-chee-soon-juan-got-right-in-ge2015-and-what-the-minor-parties-got-wrong/

This bit had me in stitches

TR Emeritus’s reader Oxygen mentioned that KJ is a good candidate and has intellectual thoughts which can add value in parliament. That may be true. But the reality is that swing voters do not care to know that. What they see is KJ’s low EQ and lack of personal touch. He was whining so much during the Punggol East by-election about getting a cold, having a short campaign period, having an undemocratic elections department, etc. These actions do not endear him to swing voters. Him scolding voters for voting for PAP after GE2015 was completely unnecessary and implies that they were right not to vote for him. KJ is not doing himself any favours by not being humble.

Where is he between elections anyway? Is he walking the ground and sitting at coffee shops, meeting residents and opening up to them? Where is his grit and determination? Yes, his accent makes it hard for people to relate to him, but he can overcome that if he works hard enough on the ground in between elections. He cannot just show up for the GE and hope that the protest vote is enough for him to win. Hope is not a strategy!

To the above, I’d add that people who meet s/o JBJ usually remark afterwards that they have problems making eye contact with him when talking to him.

Not only is this annoying, it makes for an uncomfortable conversation.

I’ve said to these people that this doesn’t necessarily mean that he thinks that talking to them is a waste of his time (but it could be). It seems he is very uncomfortable making eye contact ( a neurological issue) But, Liars are more likely to make eye contact. So at least he’s an honest, sincere man even if he might have an EQ of a Yahoo.

The u/m joke is even more true of Meng Seng and of s/o JBJ, even though their wives are not S’porean and don’t reside here and hence don’t vote.

And they are trying to tell us S’poreans how to vote, despite having their families overseas? That’s being more arrogant than the PAP. What stakes do Meng Seng and s/o JBJ have in S’pore’s continued well-being? A big fat zero.

What does it tell us about their supporters? That they are super daft: any ass except a PAP ass.

Someone posted this on TRE

SDA Candidate Joke: January 7, 2016 at 1:57 pm (Quote) A dejected SDA candidate trudges home after GE 2015. “So, Ah Kow, how many votes did you get?” asks his wife. “Two,” he responds. She slaps him hard across the face.

“What was that for?” Ah Kow asks. “You have a mistress, now do you!!?” shouted his wife.

This incident just indicates another reason why those 70% voted for pap, it could be very clear to them that pap is absolutely horrible; but what can they do, when there’s no distinctly better alternative to replace them? There’s no point changing from one dictator to another.

This is the last para of another piece of verbal diarrhoea. He castigates Goh Meng Seng’s PPP for supporting the law that got him into trouble (“PPP politicans are retarded”).

His uncensored analysis of the BS that is Goh Meng Seng’s PPP in making a police report against Calvin Cheng, which he then expands into an attack on the Oppo parties, culminating in the above.

This is the fucked up law completely violates our constitutional rights, that landed me 55 days jail and might give me an extra 18 months, and yet an opposition party is not condemning the law, but instead using it, to try to convict another person, are they fucking retarded?!

One person’s views in no way represents the views of other people or a country, it is a logical fallacy that has been plaguing of society, due to false claims like how the quality of a parent is solely indicative of the quality of a child, and the presence of a ‘party whip’ in parliament. And now ppp is saying that calvin cheng’s comments could mislead terrorists to think that it represents the view of singapore, and thus make us susceptible to terrorist attacks. Instead of explaining how calvin cheng’s comment is not representative of the country’s and that making that association doesn’t make a lick of fucking sense, they are instead acknowledging it’s presence to try to convict another person, and thus perpetuating this disgusting mentality that causes these terrorist attacks, and widespread stupidity in our society.

Words do not cause violence, people do. If calvin cheng’s comments really does attract terrorists to attack our country, those terrorists should be held responsible, not fucking calvin cheng. But these ppp fucks actually believe that he should be held responsible and convicted!

These are the opposition members that are going to provide us more ‘freedom of speech’ and make us more ‘democratic’? People might say this just reeks of a publicity stunt, but I don’t think it’s that, I think it just reeks of immense stupidity.

calvin cheng will obviously not get convicted because he’s a pap dog, but if he does, I will speak against it! Especially since I was the one who suffered from that law he would be convicted for, And this isn’t just an act to try to make me seem compassionate and thus gain support from more people believe me. Unlike biased opposition cunts, I don’t just speak up for my side, but both sides if any injustice is inflicted on them.

From this act, we can now tell that these opposition fuckers from PPP are absolutely horrible! Not only are they morally deprived, they’re even worst than pap because you don’t even have the ability to suck up to the singaporean population. No wonder the opposition lost the elections, fucking disgusting pieces of shit like sec-gen cunt augustine and goh meng seng are contesting.

I hope this moral depravity is only exclusive to members from ppp (probably not, those nsp fucks..), with fuckers like these in the opposition side no wonder educated people would be skeptical and vote for pap.

This incident just indicates another reason why those 70% voted for pap, it could be very clear to them that pap is absolutely horrible; but what can they do, when there’s no distinctly better alternative to replace them? There’s no point changing from one dictator to another.

People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Yesterday I read that Goh Meng Seng’s People’s Power Party filed a report against Calvin Cheng.

I couldn’t help laughing because Goh Meng Seng and his People’s Power Party could be guilty of a “seditious tendency” under section 3(1)(e) of the Sedition Act because of a comment they made against FTs saying that they were responsible for the deaths in SGH.

———————————————————————–

3.— (1) A seditious tendency is a tendency —

(a) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the Government;

(b) to excite the citizens of Singapore or the residents in Singapore to attempt to procure in Singapore, the alteration, otherwise than by lawful means, of any matter as by law established;

(c) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the administration of justice in Singapore;

(d) to raise discontent or disaffection amongst the citizens of Singapore or the residents in Singapore;

(e) to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore.

————————————————————————–

Does Goh Meng Seng and his People’s Power Party have any evidence for this very serious and probably seditious comment linking FTs to the SGH tragedy. In a statement* he issued as Sec-Gen of PPP, after quoting from the Internal Review Report that there were serious lapses in the hospital’s staff whereby they have not adhered to established protocols as basic as hand hygiene which subsequently caused contamination to other medical equipment., went on

— Our hospitals have employed a substantial number of foreign healthcare providers over the decade.

— It is apparent that MOH has allowed hospitals to employ cheap foreign substitutes from Third World countries instead of making the effort to look into the shortage of Singapore nurses seriously. Training and certification of nursing in these foreign countries may fall short of our expectations and this might have compromised the safety and standards of our healthcare system. This may well be the reason why SGH nurses have breached even the most basic requirement of hand hygiene.

(Emphasis mine)

Remember Ello Ello’s jailing for sedition?

The Sedition Act was used to bring a criminal charge against him, to the surprise of some, including self. In previous cases involving this law, it was about offending members of other races or religions. It was a point the defence made in arguing for a lower sentence, that his remarks did not exacerbate racial or religious tensions.

The judge said in response, “The local-foreigner divide has remained a challenging fault line in our society in recent times. Unlike the limited effect and reach of distinct racial or religious issues, this divide affects all and sundry, and cannot be regarded as any less delicate or sensitive in the current context,”.

So the Sedition Act can cover remarks that also pit “classes” – that is foreigner versus locals – against each other, and which had a potential for the eruption of violence.

The Act is not just about race and religion, but also about locals versus FTs is something that Goh Meng Seng, Gilbert Goh and their cybernut followers should think about before they start their mindless rants.

They could be targets of sedition charges when they rant and rave about FTs. But I’m sure Ravi (if he ever gets back his licence to talk cock, sing song in court) will argue that Goh Meng Seng, Gilbert Goh and the cybernuts have the constitutional right to threaten FTs, instead of relying on the defences according by s3(2):

Notwithstanding subsection (1), any act, speech, words, publication or other thing shall not be deemed to be seditious by reason only that it has a tendency —

(a) to show that the Government has been misled or mistaken in any of its measures;

(b) to point out errors or defects in the Government or the Constitution as by law established or in legislation or in the administration of justice with a view to the remedying of such errors or defects;

(c) to persuade the citizens of Singapore or the residents in Singapore to attempt to procure by lawful means the alteration of any matter in Singapore; or

(d) to point out, with a view to their removal, any matters producing or having a tendency to produce feelings of ill-will and enmity between different races or classes of the population of Singapore,

if such act, speech, words, publication or other thing has not otherwise in fact a seditious tendency.

But Meng Seng couldn’t care less about going to prison. He has seen the publicity that Roy, New Citizen Hui Hui and the other hooligans, and Amos Yee can generate by breaking the law.

Ipdate on 21 Dec at 11.5am)And guess what? Amos calls Goh Meng Seng and gang “retards” for being in favour of the law that got Amos into trouble.

————————————

*Text of part of rant: The Internal Review Committe has stated that there were serious lapses in the hospital’s staff whereby they have not adhered to established protocols as basic as hand hygiene which subsequently caused contamination to other medical equipment. We suspect that this is a symptom of a bigger fundamental problem of MOH’s Human Resource policy.

Our hospitals have employed a substantial number of foreign healthcare providers over the decade. This is due to various reasons which include increasing demand of hospital care due to explosive population growth in the past decade. We also learn that many locally trained nurses have left the industry due to unfavorable shift work schedule.

Nursing is a professional job but apparently the salary scale for nurses in Singapore is only half of the salary scale paid by Hong Kong hospitals. It is apparent that MOH has allowed hospitals to employ cheap foreign substitutes from Third World countries instead of making the effort to look into the shortage of Singapore nurses seriously. Training and certification of nursing in these foreign countries may fall short of our expectations and this might have compromised the safety and standards of our healthcare system. This may well be the reason why SGH nurses have breached even the most basic requirement of hand hygiene.

There is plenty of “analysis” (or is it “wishful thinking”) in cyberspace on which areas the oppo will win. One of these days, I’ll analyse why other than Potong Pasir SMC (if that nutter once o fthe NSP doesn’t stand), there are only two GRCs that can reasonably be expected to change hands, one of which is Aljunied.

But today I want readers to think about the barrier that the Oppo faces everytime there is a GE.

Forget about the gerrymandering, fixing the Oppo, defamation suits, personal attacks and the election goodies:when GE time comes around there is a mental barrier the Oppo parties have to climb over or breach: voters take a pragmatic view based on what they would be best for the economy, their jobs, and their families.

When elections come it seems that the electorate reaches an unhappy conclusion that life is difficult, and that they will reluctantly back the party that they think offer the best hope in difficult circumstances.

The Tories [in the UK] didn’t win a majority because people were going to the polls saying ‘I love these bunch of guys’.

Voters took a pragmatic view based on what they would be best for the economy, their jobs, and their families. The psychology seemed to be what will be the least worst, not what will take us to Nirvana.

And with people like s/o JBJ, Goh Meng Seng* (the reincarnation of Harbans Singh, the clown king of Oppo politics in the 70s and 89s), Roy and Sebastian Teo (president of the No Substance Party standing, and the silence of the WP MPs, and the inability of ANPETC to keep proper records, you can understand why at least 60% of the voters think that the PAP is the least “bad” choice even if the PA (where PM is the chairman) has serious problems about enforcing its internal financial rules, and the PAP has some heartless and brainless MPs.

Btw, the Great Wall of China was not breached or scaled by the Manchus in the 17th century. A Ming dynasty general ordered the gates to be open. And while the Qing dynasty was Manchu, the army and cicil service was staffed largely by Han Chinese.

—

*I think this TRE reader describes him perfectly:

kanasai gms: August 11, 2015 at 8:44 pm (Quote) this GMS fella, i will not vote for him. what he wrote or spoke about to the man are all the obvious issues that had appeared in this forum, and other online media many times before.

i will not want a character like him to be my mp. people will not forget the way he kept sniping at Sylvia Lim (and her party), even at her private affairs. what a bast**d this guy is. He even condemn my football hero Quah Kim Song. Remember because of his big mouth people will also remember those negative and bad remarks that he said about NSP hor!

this is classic kaykian kanasai howtai fella! With a fucker like him who need enemies as the saying goes…lolol!

he is now trying to appear to be praising and appreciative of his mentor LTK. sorry man! he had said many bad thing that he should not about LTK. one “good” quote from LTK during his walkabout will not redeem him

baring that english is not his 1st language, look at the way he handle and present himself in front of reporters in the ST video. i dont see a leader and a mp in him. it is no wonder that he had to resigned from NSP.

Update on 22 August at 6.30am: Obviously NSP He-man Steve Chia is not afraid of losing to Tin, having persuaded the NSP to change its mind on contesting here. Can we expect to walk-about dressed in a bikini brief only, showing off his abs and challenging Tin to show off her post natal abs.

(Update on 13 August at 2.50pm:

Tin Pei Ling is raring to rejoin her team in gearing up for the contest in MacPherson in the upcoming General Election. Speaking exclusively to 938LIVE, she said she will nevertheless complete her one-month confinement period, after giving birth to a baby boy, Ng Kee Hau, on Aug 5.

Ms Tin said even now it is business as usual, as she is maintaining close contact with her team in the constituency.

…

She hopes that the residents at MacPherson will understand her month-long absence. “(I) hope that residents will judge based on past experience, past work done, as well as looking ahead, I hope that they will continue to let me have this opportunity to serve them, continue the work that I’ve been delivering for them,” she said.

Ms Tin also said she is ready to face a contest in MacPherson. “My mission right from the beginning is to serve my residents, that has always been the case. So most part of my energy, my mental and physical energy, will be focusing on making sure that the day to day issues of my residents have been taken care of. MacPherson is well run, so whoever comes to contest in MacPherson, we will just roll with the punches and prepare accordingly,” she said.

CNA)

If the cybernuts are to be believed, even Goh Meng Seng (the movement’s founder and once their hero but now considered by even cybernuts to be a zero) can trash Tin Pei Ling if he stands in MacPherson.

Obviously going by their recent decisions regarding the SMC by the WP and NSP, the WP and NSP never consulted the cybernuts.

Sylvia Lim explains why the WP did not attend the opposition meeting on Thursday.

She says that her party had offered to let the National Solidarity Party contest Macpherson if the latter withdrew its intention to contest Marine Parade.

TOC

Funny that they were prepared to give away Macpherson while wanting to fight in Marine Parade. There is a 14 points gap to overturn in Marine Parade, two more than Aljunied in 2011.

If Tin is so easy to beat, shouldn’t the WP prefer to contest a winnable SMC? WP knows can’t win in thisSMC?

And now NSP double confirms the view that Tin is unbeatable, by not wanting to contest in this SMC. It could have challenged Kate Spade with u/m in Macpherson, but didn’t. I hear a lot of apeks in area upset she isn’t standing.

Seriously, before the WP came out with the above statement that it was willing to “give” Macpherson to the NSP, my Facebook avatar posted (when someone was making fun of Kate Spade): TPL will win. She’s a very good foot soldier PAP MP i.e. social welfare worker. Area is traditional PAP stronghold. And given the large number of older, less well off S’poreans here, the Pioneer Gen goodies will have an impact. If the PAP had two social welfare worker MPs in Aljunied in 2011, the result would be different. Instead it had two women from hell. One was union bureaucrat, other was rich in her own right.

Someone seconded my avatar saying: My old neighbours said who live there now view her in a new light. She’s bern working doubly hard and going the extra mile.

Double confirm: even the No Substance Party ignores the cybernuts. And do remember Goh Meng Seng left the WP because it wasn’t happy her was going nuts in cyberspace: rowing in cyberspace.

The Democratic Progressive Party and the People’s Power Party are misleading voters about themselves.

The Democratic Progressive Party should rename itself the “Dissidents (to the Chiams) People’s Party” or the “Take Revenge Party” or the “Ng Kum Guan Party”, while Meng Seng should rename his party “People’s Parachutist Party”.

Except for Tanjong Pagar GRC, the other 3 wards were contested by the Chiams’ party, the Singapore People’s Party (SPP), in the last GE*.

When the possibility of 3-cornered fights with SPP was pointed out to DPP, Pwee (he was the chairman of the PAP Youth Wing in the Thomson area, according to Wikipedia) didn’t disagree saying“We will put a candidate in Potong Pasir because we believe we can put somebody who is a lot stronger than Mrs Chiam.”

More on FengShan below but the plan to contest Potong Pasir is definely an attepmt to fix the Chiams.

Three very senior members of the DPP were members of the SPP and fought along side Chiam in Bishan (5 MP GRC). They are:

Chairman – Mohamad Hamim bin Aliyas

Secretary-General – Pwee Yek Kwan Benjamin

Assistant Secretary-General – Leung Wei Lit Wilfred

They had left the SPP in a huff in 2012 when Chiam refused to relinquish power in the SPP, retaining power in the Chiam family**

As far as competing in Bishan, the DPP has as much right as the Chiams’ Party to compete in the area. Pwee and Leung are in the DPP team for the area: the others are expected to be named soon.

But not in Potong Pasir. Mrs Chiam has been walking the ground in Potong Pasir since before Chiam’s victory in thev8os and she deserves to be the only Oppo candidate. Having said that isn’t it strange that the Chiams (and many S’poreans, especially cybernuts) regard Potong Pasir as the Chiams, personal fiefdom, even though the voters narrowly favoured a PAP man over Mrs Chiam. The cybernuts are comfortable with the Chiams way of keeping things in the Chiam family, while cursing the Lee dynasty, as they see it. Double standards?

Background on DPP

DPP was a zombie party until 2013. The last time it contested a GE was in 2001, 14 years ago.

According to Wikipedia, the party was founded in 1973 by some unhappy WP members led by Seow Khee Leng. It was then called the United Front (UF).

UF contested in the 1976, 1979 and 1980 GEs garnering 12.3%, 25.3% and 19% of the valid votes respectively. After being renamed Singapore United Front (SUF) in 1982, it contested in the 1984 GE, garnering 34.2%.

In January 1988, its members joined the WP to contest the 1988 GE. But it was still registered as a political party.

In 1992, after the 1991 GE, Seow Khee Leng again led some members out of the WP and revived SUF, and renamed it once again to DPP. He really has a thing against the WP.

The DPP contested in the 1997 and 2001 GEs,winning 12.3% and 14.3% of the valid votes respectively. DPP contested 2 constituencies each in 1997 and 2001: DPP candidates lost their election deposits. One of the DPP candidates who contested both times was Tan Lead Shake, who wore slippers into the nomination centre to hand in his nomination form. Whatever happened to him. Maybe he joined Meng Seng’s party?

After more than a decade of inactivity, the DPP has been revived by a few former SPP members. In December 2012, Seow Khee Leng invited them to join the DPP. Benjamin Pwee was immediately appointed the party’s Acting Secretary-General in January 2013. Two months later, he was elected Secretary-General. In 2011, he joined SPP to contest in the 2011 GE. In January 2012, he left SPP. He became Secretary-General of DPP in 2013.

Fengshan

It was also pointed out to DPP that it might clash with WP there. DPP announced that it would be fielding its party founder, 75-year-old Seow Khee Leng, in Fengshan.

Mr Pwee explained to the media that going to Fengshan was to “fulfill Mr Seow’s desire to run there”. Mr Seow chipped in, “I have been walking there for more than 4 to 5 years and I live around there too.”

And going by the history of the DPP narraated above, he’s got a grudge against the WP.

People’s Parachutist Party

Ain’t only the PAP that parachutes candidates in at the last minute. Even Goh Meng Seng does it, jetting in (in his private jet?) from his base in HK, and parachuting into the wilds of Choa Chu Kang***. His only connection with the area was that he was sec-gen of the No Substance Party which contested in that area in 2011.

Let’s see if he can do better than the two scholars (husband and wife) that helmed the NSP team. Or will he, like presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian, to whom he was an adviser, lose his deposit?

**The six former Singapore People’s Party (SPP) Central Executive Committee members who resigned from the party last week have acknowledged the response given by its former secretary-general Chiam See Tong on Wednesday night.

Following Chiam’s clarification that the SPP had received legal advice to confirm the constitutional legitimacy of its Central Executive Committee (CEC) election at the party’s Ordinary Party Conference (OPC) last Sunday, the group said on Thursday morning that his clarification and accountability “bodes well for the SPP’s credibility”.

The six, which consist of the party’s former first and second assistant secretary-generals Wilfred Leung and Benjamin Pwee, organising secretary Ting Sze Jiang, Malay/Muslim affairs head Mohamad Hamim bin Aliyas, his wife and businessmen affairs head David Tan, made clear in their statement that their differences held with the party over leadership styles had never been with Mr Chiam.

They both trying to audition for the next Planet of the Apes movie? I hear there’s a role for a clowning chimp that takes on the gorillas and gets beaten up for his efforts. Amos would have a hard start on GMS for this role, given his recent spell in remand and our very own Arkham. https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/06/23/arkham-awaits-amos-autism-isnt-mental-illness-but/, https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/06/29/mother-mary-why-fantastic-is-in-block-7/

Goh Meng Seng for all his blustering braggadocio hasn’t suffered at the hands of the PAP administration, unlike Amos. In fact, GMS helped ensure the victory of the PAP’s preferred presidential candidate by advising, helping Tan Kin Lian run a clownish election campaign. Incidentally, he had been encouraging, flattering TKL to run since 2008.

Seriously GMS was taking part in a “protest” in support of Amos, the boy fantastic. He jetted in from HK for a flying visit. He got his own private set?

Btw, notice that GMS was using a pink polo shirt. Is he courting the LGBT vote, imitating Pinkie or signalling his intention to the president of the No Substance Party that he’s still available. Yes, I know the NSP’s official polo shirt is orange, but using an orange polo shirt is too obvious, a signal.

I’m sure you’d receive by now a letter from MoF telling you that a cash GST voucher has been credited to yr bank account, and another to yr Medisave CPF account. Senior citizens also get another one credited to their bank account. The letter carries the words “Budget 2015”.

Now the annual Budget in S’pore, and elsewhere is a summary of how the economy is doing; it gives a list of new tax and spending decisions from the government; and it contains a lot of political spin. And a new set of economic forecasts is published.

In an election year (or a probable one) it also allows the govt of the day to play Santa Claus or the God of Fortune by handing out goodies.

That’s what the PAP administration did and making sure we are reminded of it.

But let’s not forget all the price hikes since 2011. See https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/p180x540/11040605_707823462655347_6438864457431843130_n.png?oh=4e300144aaa0a5add4d61d2dec39273f&oe=561957B9 for a very comprehensive, op-to-date list.

Especially the fare increases despite the failure to get the trains run on time and the falling price of oil in 2014*.

As PM’s dad once said, when telling SIA pilots that they they had a good deal despite being paid lower salaries than their other furst world counterparts, “It’s a package”.

So tout up the goodies, you’ve been given (remembering that it’s yr money in the first place) since 2011, think of the price increases since 2011 and then decide if the package is about right, or an insult or generous.

All these tots led me to think about what voters really care about.

In the early 1970s, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Norman Kirk laid out a political philosophy which still resonates today. People, he said, don’t want much. They want: “Someone to love, somewhere to live, somewhere to work and something to hope for.”

Relationships and a sense of community, a secure home; a secure job, and a belief that life will get better for us and our children – the building blocks of “the good life”, but what do they mean today as we grapple with globalisation, austerity, immigration, insecurities and uncertainty about the future? Is the job at hand to work out a new formula for fulfilment or to find a way back to these old certainties?

(BBC report before the UK election)

They care about “the good life”, voting for the party that they think can provide with a good life. All the oppo parties bar one mouth the need to help S’poreans get the good life. The WP knows this (hence it positions itself as PAP lite: more accountable and compossinate even if they can’t do accounting and monitoring their managing agent. So does the SDP: it has a whole range of policies**.

The only party that doesn’t care a hoot about the good life is Goh Meng Seng’s party, at least going by his latest attention-seeking tactics. https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/07/13/what-amos-and-meng-seng-have-in-common/

Maybe, it’s because he’s based in HK, jetting down (private jet?) to encourage his fellow cybernuts?

————–

*Worse the ex-SAF general who is incapable of getting the trains running on time is getting paid a lot more than his predecessor who to be fair to her allowed her Ferrari to run over her when she failed to get the trains to run on time, insulting us in the process.The present CEO is staying put. In the US, The director of the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has resigned after a massive data breach involving more than 20 million people.

Katherine Archuleta said she would step down on Friday to help the department “move beyond the current challenges”.

Dr Chee’s analysis of where we were heading in the 90s is a lot more accurate than that of the PAP administration of the time. I had a more middle of the road view but I have to say, I suspect, that for most S’poreans, reading Dr Chee’s 1990s analysis today, they will nod in agreement.

Yesterday I blogged that Amos is doing some good by drawing attention to a growing problem: excessive attention-seeking behaviour in children https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/where-amos-is-doing-some-good-dog-for-amos/.

Going by Goh Meng Seng’s recent behaviour, maybe he’s suffering from something similar: excessive attention-seeking behaviour in adults? Seeking attention only becomes an issue when one goes through excessive lengths and means to get attention, and this can cause the person not to be functional in many areas in life.

Two recent examples of this behaviour by GMS:

He came close to joining New Citizen Hui Hui, TRE’s Oxygen and their fellow cybernuts in dancing on the graves of the children who died in Sabah. He, like them, blamed the MoE on the flawed logic of “Because there were deaths on a school trip, MoE, school are responsible.” Fortunately, he didn’t go further like Oxygen, and friends who gleefully blamed and sneered at the parents for the deaths. The parents had signed the consent forms, and were stupid to do so said Oxygen to loud applause from other cybernuts. How low can some people stoop?

And among the Oppo, only he and s/o JBJ came out in defence of Amos. Do remember, he also came out in support of the right of Roy, Hui hui and the other young hooligans to disrupt an event where special needs kids were performing. So incidentally did Dr Chee of the SDP.

GMS trying to pander to his base of cybernuts? Or juz him showing excessive attention-seeking behaviour?

Now this weekend he wrote,

“[I]t would be natural to expect WP not to contest more seats than it has done before. In fact, it should be contesting less seats instead,” says Goh Meng Seng, once the adviser to the people’s clown, Tan Kin Lian in PE 2011, and now

His reasoning is that: I do not think WP can convince voters that it could manage ADDITIONAL constituencies well when it is currently struggling with the present 7 constituencies’ municipal management.

WP may risk a total collapse of credibility if it won more seats but in the end TC management become a horrible nightmare. This will in return destroy WP totally by the elections after next. Stay focus on the current 7 seats will be its best strategy. I believe LTK will want to fortify his positions in these current seats instead of having the ambition to win even more seats.

Err why doesn’t he advise the No Substance Party to contest less seats? In GE 2011, NSP contested 24 seats, WP 23. As NSP won a big fat zero shouldn’t it focus? Especially as the party has imploded in the last few months

— a few active cadres resigned including two former “portliburo” members (I know them personally and got a lot of time for them even though I think one of them is better of as a blogger and social activist*)

— the “new” sec-gen resigned and a retired sec-gen was wheeled out as an interim measure; and

— the president of the party made a fool of himself. It’s a complicated story: http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2015/03/nsps-back-track-on-presidential-appeal-in-need-of-reason/**

Whatever, WP and NSP contesting less seats means people like Meng Seng get a look in unless they are prepared to split the Oppo vote***. The “tissue” chopping system practiced by the NSP in the last GE (remember who was the sec-gen? makes it difficult for new parties. The NSP has a lot of tissue papers (or rather toilet roles)out there.

In yesterday’s piece, I advised that owning a dog would be a good way of curing excessive attention-seeking behaviour in a child. Still not too late for Meng Seng to get a dog.

—

*When P Ravi was at TOC, he organised a protest against the then CEO of SMRT. A few days layer she resigned.

**And there’s an interesting side story. Goh Meng Seng and the president were discussing his return to the NSP, a party he had left in a huff. But when the president went “bananas”, Meng Seng attacked him (see the TOC story for the details) and Meng Seng couldn’t return.

But it’s interesting to note that in all the recent in-line photis, he’s wearing the NSP colours.

***Which is no big deal given that NSP never came close in GE 2011 and 2006 to win a seat.

Dr Chee was quick to defend Roy when he led a bunch of hooligans in disrupting YMCA’s function at Hong Lim Green, but is strangely silent on coming out in support of the WP over the AHPETC incident: remember that when he didn’t take his anti-Mad Dog pills a few yrs ago, he proposed that if the SDP won the Punggol East by-election, he would allow the then AHTC to run Punngol East.

Maybe that’s why he’s so silent: pai seh that he trusted the WP.

Goh Meng Seng was also pretty quick to defend the actions of Roy, New Citizen H3 and the other hooligans who disturbed the YMCA’s activities. He is also very anti-WP: always looking to say nasty things about the WP and its leaders. Example: when news broke that Auntie and Quah Kim Song had become a couple, he KPKBed about it while others were, rightly, congratulating the couple, wishing them well. Then there was the time when he criticised the People’s Princess Nicole Seah, in the guise of giving her advice.

So his silence especially when when there is an opportunity to slime the WP, is really strange. Has he had his vocal cords cut?

As to the possible reason for his silence, watch this space. It’s connected to why four NSP young Turks walked out of the NSP and were seen campaigning for the Chiams.

The Budget goodies (good summary from Yahoo) had TOC reduced to saying: The cynical among us would see Budget 2015 as an extension of a vote-buying scheme from Budget 2014. The focus of 2014 was on the elderly through the Pioneer Generation Package, and 2015 saw a distinctive shift towards the middle-income wage earners.

Some attention was paid on the Silver Support Scheme and levelling CPF contributions, but a lot more attention went towards tweaking policies for innovation and productivity, education for both the working group and children, transport cost and taxes – issues that concern the working folks.

By the pecking order of election goodies, the People’s Action Party government seems to be working its way through every sector of society, dishing out benefits to make, eventually, everyone happy. Or is it?

That TOC is reduced to this kind of rhetorical rubbish shows that the cybernuts in the anti-PAP movement can only shout into the storm like the mad (Or was he bi-polar?) King Lear in criticising the Budget. Of course, the Budget (any budget) could give more goodies, but as an attempt to bribe us with a our money, it’s pretty decent.

And the Budget isn’t the only source of heartache and grief to the cybernuts

The revelation that TRS has an FT editor (a cross between and Oz and a Nip) has caused a lot of angst and soul-searching among these anti-PAP cybernuts: born losers who were cheering on TRS as the only publication that gave vent to their sense of outrage against FTs, the PAP and all things S’porean: they don’t have the good life that they think they are entitled to and it’s the fault of other S’poreans. Ever tot of hard work and brains?

But they should again look on the bright side: even an FT can be anti-PAP cybernut despite all the TLC and money that the PAPpies lavish on FTs.

Better still, these born losers can look forward to the return of Goh Meng Seng to politics. Doubtless they will be cheering even louder when he rejoins the NSP, a party whose leaders he slimed a yr after he let his party mewmbership lapse. For the record, the party president remains the same then as now. In fact he has been the president since the party was founded in the 1990s.

But better GMS in the NSP than standing as an independent. He could have formed a team to fight Aljunied*. Back in the NSP, he’d have to observe the “chop” policy among the Oppo parties. I don’t think NSP is that bi-polar as to break the pact because GMS wants to fight the WP in Aljunied.

*We [Barisan Socialists] won thirteen seats at the elections, averaging 15.000 votes to each seat. The PAP won thirty- seven seats, averaging 7,000 votes to each seat. The United People’s Party, whose function was to split the left-wing votes, campaigned on a programme that was somewhat similar to ours but more extremely put. Only their leader, Mr. Ong Eng Guan, was elected. We received 201,000 votes (35 per cent) and the PAP 272,000 votes (47 per cent). The difference is only 70,000 votes out of a total electorate of nearly 500,000. The UPP took away 49,000 votes (8 per cent), causing us the loss of seven con- stituencies (apart from Mr. Ong’s), and saved four PAP Ministers from defeat.

Yesterday, I read that Goh Meng Seng (Remember him? Ex-NSP secretary-general and adviser to presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian, who lost his deposit, but in so doing allowed the preferred PAP candidate to win by three hundred odd votes) had come out fighting defending “cartoonist” Leslie Chew’s comments about the Worthless Party. Trust GMS to attack the WP at any opportunity*. He even used the news that Auntie and Quah Kim Song were dating to attack her and WP.

This reminded me that in the recent past he had blogged on voting for the right oppo party.

For the coming GE, opposition supporters should ask the various opposition parties on their positions on vital importance:

1) What do they think about current political system and do they think we need to improve the Checks and Balances of the whole system?

2) Do they believe in Separation of Powers as the main pillar of Democratic system? If so, what do they suggest to enhance the Separation of Powers in our current political system?

3) Do they believe in Freedom of Speech? If so, what do they suggest to change from status quo?

4) Do they believe in Social Justice? If so, what do they suggest to enhance it?

5) Do they believe in Rule of Law? Are they satisfied with the current system? If not, what do they suggest to enhance it?

If any opposition party refuse or try to shy away from answering all these basic questions, you should beware of their TRUE COLORS.

If I go thru the publicly professed beliefs of the WP, SDP, NSP and the Chiams (the rest of the oppo parties don’t matter), I don’t think any party lives to GMS’s high standards: not even the NSP when he was sec-gen.

So I’m hoping that this isn’t a sign of his intention to start another party. Do we need another? One with him and possibly Tan Kin Lian at the helm?

I also hope that if he sets up a new party, he isn’t planning to sabo anyone or some or all of the WP, SDP, NSP and the Chiams by forcing three-way fights..

To be constructive towards GMS, here’s a map for GMS (and also s/o JBJ, SDA, Pwee’s lot and Tan Jee Say’s gang). to show where they should feel free to contest each other and the PAP. The areas to contest are where s/o JBJ and followers, SDA (Except Punggol East where the WP won a subsequent by-election and where the SDA candidate and s/o JBJ lost their deposits), stood in 2011, where the SPP fielded a non-Chiam in a SMC, and Tanjong Pagar.

They should feel free to fight three-corner or four-corner contests, because the SDA and s/o JBJ have broken the ‘no” third party pact that the Oppo parties have traditionally adhered too.

Leave the other areas to whoever contested in 2011.

Readrs will know I’ve expressed my fear that in next GE, it’ll be 1963 all over again.

We [Barisan Socialists] won thirteen seats at the elections, averaging 15.000 votes to each seat. The PAP won thirty- seven seats, averaging 7,000 votes to each seat. The United People’s Party, whose function was to split the left-wing votes, campaigned on a programme that was somewhat similar to ours but more extremely put. Only their leader, Mr. Ong Eng Guan, was elected. We received 201,000 votes (35 per cent) and the PAP 272,000 votes (47 per cent). The difference is only 70,000 votes out of a total electorate of nearly 500,000. The UPP took away 49,000 votes (8 per cent), causing us the loss of seven constituencies (apart from Mr. Ong’s), and saved four PAP Ministers from defeat.

GMS likes to tell us online the ways in which HK is a better place than S’pore. It’s gd to get the perspective of someone who jets between HK and S’ore and who is raising a family there while working there.

But he never tells us this

We are not among these cities ’cause of our “affordable” public housing that is causing debt problems for younger S’poreans. It’s so affordable that GMS sold his flat to help fund his bid for a S$15,000 monthly salary. He knew he could get a second bite at the cherry if he needed to?

Whatever it is, we do know that GMS has the money to raise a family in a city where housing is very “unafforable”. He FT in HK?

The day before I read Ho Kwon Ping’s speech*, the following conversation occurred on Facebook between friends

One friend asked another friend on her views on buying a Samsung Galaxy note 4 here. The first friend has daughter working here.

My other friend replied

If she doesn’t already have a plan that she is locked into .. she shld jus sign up for one or recontract if it’s due for renewal. The subsidy for the fone is pretty gud. I only paid S$48 for my note4. I use Singtel even tho I have endless issues with them but I feel it is still better than the other 2 telos we have here.

When it comes to voting for the PAP, 25- 35% of S’poreans, I suspect think like her. Plenty of problems with PAP (like Singtel’s service, the PAP’s servant-leadership sucks). But then there are compensations (like bullying bullying hooligans like Roy and H3: no human rights BS for them; low taxes**; can leave doors unlocked even when no-one in the house; uncongested roads, safe streets etc etc).

And what are the alternatives to the PAP? The Worthless Party that doesn’t to become the governing party, even in coalition with other oppo parties (only loyal courtier leh); SDP whose leader can still go wacko (remember Dr Chee’s remarks about Punggol East); and even NSP (a sensible party after Goh Meng Seng*** moved on and started sliming it) can do strange things. NSP is KPKBing about nothing impt (a lawyer, I’m told, refuses to declare how rich rich she is). Makes one want to weep.

Coming back to SingTel: I couldn’t help but think “Singtel screws footie fans but gives peanuts to disabled?” when I in July I read , Singtel announced yesterday a donation of S$1.1 million to SG Enable, an agency which provides services for disabled people, with the money going towards the setting up and running of the Enabling Innovation Centre (EIC).BT 23 July.

Remember the cost of EPL and World Cup footie.

——-

*”Is Ho Kwon Ping saying all that much? 15 years from now means 2029/30. That’s at least three general elections away!” was posted on facebook by a friend.

**Don’t buy into the BS that CPF is a tax. It has elements of a tax (think retention, limited use and pay now, get back in future when value is deminished), but until the day one the govt stops monies in CPF account being inherited in cash, tax it ain’t. Sorry to disagree with Uncle Leong. I respect or agree with many of his views, but not on CPF being a tax.

***Goh Meng Seng can contradict himself in same paragraph.

It is truly enlightening to see that BOTH people from the “Third World” and “First World” places like Malaysia and Hong Kong are shunning Singapore for “retirement”. But as Singaporeans, do we have a choice at all? We are born in Singapore and we have little choice but live, retire and die in Singapore. However, under PAP rule, we are going to suffer, after decades of contributing to Singapore’s development, we will die poor, having to be forced to sell off our HDB flat for our retirement.

But then he says:

I guess the ultimate aim of PAP has been leaked before, they wanted us to retire in JB (Johor Bahru)!So waz this about … as Singaporeans, do we have a choice at all? We are born in Singapore and we have little choice but live, retire and die in Singapore.

Come on Goh Meng Seng, think before write. Or at least read back what you just wrote, a second ago.

And we do have a choice to retain our citizenship and live abroad in our old age. M’sia and the Philippines have “silver-hair” programmes fot foreigners. I also know of S’poreans who have sold off their HDB flats and moved onto NZ, Oz and Canada.

As you are personally aware (having sold yr HDB flat to fund the NSP’s campaign in 2011), the high prices of HDB flats gives options to many S’poreans. Whether they take advantage of it, is up to them. If they die, die want to remain here, they have to accept whatever govt, the majority of their fellow S’poreans prefer. At the moment, 60 — 70% prefer the PAP. And with anti-PAP activists like you and the person you advised, Tan Kin Lian, who can blame them?

I refer to the letter “Well-considered decision by police on Filipino event” (May 30). Orchard Road, being a bustling shopping belt, is indeed not a feasible venue for the Philippine independence celebration.

I feel that Hong Lim Park is currently underutilised, apart from occasional events held by civil activists. It should henceforth be designated a permanent site for any future celebrations of national or independence days by foreigners residing here.

I remember that the Philippine Independence Day was celebrated last year at Hong Lim Park.

For some reason, the organisers contemplated changing the venue this year.

What will Goh Meng Seng and Gilbert Goh say or do if this suggestion was accepted by the govt? After all Hong Lim was where Tan Kin Lian (adviser one Goh Meng Seng) made his name as the “People’s Voice” speaking out on the credit notes fiasco, and where GG got out the crowd to protest about immigration, and where he got people spitting on their public tpt fare cards.

The area is, or should be, sacred space (or sovereign territory) to both of them.

A comment on Voices on the above suggestion that I’m sure GMS, GG and friends would agree with:

Hong Lim Park is meant as Speakers’ Corner for Singaporean.Why should foreigners celebrate national day or Independence day in the open than in the their respective embassy or other indoor facilities. It is alright to do it in the open if they celebrate cultural or other events.

But what I don’t understand is why in 2013, they didn’t protest when the Pinoys were planning to party (and did party) in Hong Lim Park, GG and GMS did not complain about the Pinoys’ planned party (which went on as planned), and against the govt for allowing the party. They after all want all such parties to be held behind closed doors.

As their 2014 objection was not confined to the Orchard Rd venue of the party, why didn’t they protest in 2013?

Opportunism? Netizens were not worked up about a Pinoy party at Hong Lim? So no poiting trying to stir the pot or add kerosene to a fire?

Or they like PAP MPs were sleeping? They didn’t read TRE last yr when it reported the Pinoys were planning to “trespass” Hong Lim?

What do you think

Have a gd weekend.

And if in search of laughs, go see Roy and his New Citizen GF at Hong Lim telling para facts** about CPF tomorrow.

—————-

*The proposed party “trespasses” on S’pore’s sovereignty said GMS, while GG said our sovereignty is being threatened) have applied for a police permit. But they never defined their understanding of “sovereignty”, and I can find no lawyer who can explain what they meant.They all say that the Pinoys action of applying for a permit (as advised by GMS) showed that they accepted and acknowledged S’pores’s sovereignty.

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

Were they trying to cloak their feelings by using a word that had a highly technical meaning? Or were they trying to stir the masses by using a highfaluting word? As I said in the text above, why didn’t they object last yr?

I have it on good authority that the the Pinoy organisers of the 8 June party (a party that Goh Meng Seng says “trespasses” on S’pore’s sovereignty, while Gilbert Goh says our sovereignty is being threatened) have applied for a police permit. This is despite not having raised the $50,000 or thereabouts to pay for the premises and ancillaries. And despite the telcos (TLCs, GLCs) being nervous about seen sponsoring an event that upsets Goh Meng Seng, Gilbert Goh and their friends.

Maybe they took the advice of one GMS who advised them on Facebook to apply for a permit?

Seriously, because GG, GMS and friends have made the location an issue of sovereignty (as defined by them*, not int’l law) the Pinoy organisers are apparently not backing down. If their govt can stand up to China over some rocks, despite having a useless navy, so can they stand up to GG, GMs and friends, seems to be the reasoning.

Could the Pinoy organisers’ garangness could also be because they think that the PAP govt is on their side on the issue of the party’s location? If so blame it on some junior civil servants.

I have it on more good authority that junior officers from PMO are assuring the Pinoy community that the Pinoys have nothing to fear. And it’s not my argument that “S’poreans in S’pore, unlike Pinoys in their country, don’t carry or use guns”. Seems these junior officers are saying that “we treasure Pinoys”. Wonder who the “we” encompasses?

Certainly not me. While I have no problem about the Pinoys wanting to party at Orchard Rd, to me those working here are “hewers of wood and drawers of water” (Joshua. 9:21) i.e. menial drudges; labourers. I don’t treasure them, even if there are at least 50,000 new citizens** who are Pinoys. I appreciate them for their gd service and low cost, but treasure them I do not.

Whatever, GMS, can be proud that the Pinoys are taking his advice and applying for a police permit. He can’t complain if they take his advice. Wonder if the Pinoys will dedicate a song to GMS on 8 June thanking him for his efforts? Or invite him to receive a token of their appreciation?

Jokes aside, wonder what will GMS, GG and friends do? Behave like the Filipino govt over the said rocks? Jus KPKB? Might is right as the Chinese govt said to the Filipino govt.

The Filipino who complained about the expensive Alaskan king crab he and his family have feasted on claims his salary is only 60,000 pesos (approximately S$1,700) a month.

Why you think Pinoys come here to work? It’s a very poor country. And BTW also, he may not be a real “professor”, juz as the college he is working at may not be a real “college”.

——

*“I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’ ” Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’ ” “But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument’,” Alice objected. “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.” Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. “They’ve a temper, some of them—particularly verbs, they’re the proudest—adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs—however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That’s what I say!”(Thru the Looking-Glass)https://atans1.wordpress.com/2014/05/17/our-flag-kanna-burn-blame-pro-prc-ft-policies/**Correct as of few yrs back. Don’t have the latest figure.

It was reported that the recent Vietnamese rioters burnt our national flag and industrial parks because our Singapore’s flag was mistaken as the PRC’s flag. A TRE writer said that this sounded like a convenient excuse for both the authorities of Vietnam as well as Singapore. To the Vietnamese, it could claim that the fire was an honest mistake. To the Singapore Government, it could claim that the fire was not due to any failed foreign policy.

The person went on to argue that S’pore was pro-PRC, and the Viets knew this, and decided to whack us.

Well this could be right. but my take is that the Viets “know” that S’pore has so many PRC* FTs that they think S’pore is part of Greater China: so might as well burn our flag, while they are burning Taiwanese factories and killing a Chinese worker. Anyway burning our flag is a lot less worse than burning S’porean- owned factories, businesses or industrial parks, or killing S’poreans. So in my scale of things that matter, burning our flag is pretty. Lives and property matter more.

Which brings me to FDI. Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea respectively are Vietnam’s four largest investors, as measured by registered capital. China ranks between 5th and 11th, depending on how Vietnam’s official data is interpreted. A Western analyst says foreign investors are still trying to determine whether there are more serious problems afoot that may pose a potential threat to future investment, such as a bias against foreign investors, or instability in the regime.

Given Sembcorp’s biz as a an industrial park developer there, it will be watching closely.

To end, since partying in Orchard Rd is a “trespass” on our sovereignty (at least to one GMS), I look forward to hearing from Goh Meng Seng supporting the govt’s stand on our flag being burnt. If not, I and you the reader can reasonably conclude that GMS is anti-Pinoy or the PAP govt (or both), rather than pro-Singapore. Or at least being pro-S’pore comes lower in his priorities than being ant-Pinoy or anti-PAP.

BTW, I would be more indulgent of GMS if he had simply said that Pinoy partying in Orchard Rd was not to his liking because it was too in S’poreans’ face. But he decided to rant about sovereignty, a technically legalistic concept.

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’ ” Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’ ” “But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument’,” Alice objected. “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. “They’ve a temper, some of them—particularly verbs, they’re the proudest—adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs—however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That’s what I say!”

(Thru the Looking-Glass)

Have a gd weekend.

—-

*Slutty looking, violent, cheating shop assistant can get PR meh? There is gd evidence that a PRC prostitute got citizenship.

This is the “news” I picked up over the last week while feasting and dicing. I have tried to indicate which are the more reliable stories, and which are the more rubbishy ones. As usually I add my very personal takes i.e. analysis.

SPP

Juz before the hols, I was told by a reliable source that Mrs Chiam had said that the coming party conference would be a “non event”. Some non event:

– two men that were expected to lead the SPP post Chiam said they were no longer interested in being on the central executive committee (Mrs Chiam was blamed for their lost of interest); then

– six central executive members (including the above two) resigned from the party juz before the conference with one saying “that one or two key CEC members are not willing (to accommodate) a complete change over for collective leadership and accountability, and that being the case, my presence in the party will not add credible value.”

For jet-setters (like one DYadav) and planet hoppers who were away, read here and here.

Desmond Lim (remember him) was one happy man this hols, people who know him tell me. Remember he had a bad 2011 initially, being slimed by Mrs Chiam as lacking the “X” factor to succeed Chiam and hence the trouble he was giving the Chiams, then losing his deposit in the May GE. Well with the failure of the party to retain Potong Pasir and to renew itself, and the unhappiness of long serving stalwarts and newbie ex-scholars all becoming public before the hols, he feels vindicated in opposing the Chiams in 2010 and 2011. I hope he gambled big time before the Year of Rabbit ended as his luck certainly did improve.

WP

No need to say anything abt Yaw because he said “IF it is rumours …”, the other lady said, ““I hope you will not identify me or the other woman involved,”, his wife withdrew her Facebook comments about irresponsible journalism, WP’s Low Thia Kiang said: “You said yourself that these are rumours, why are you still asking me?”, and deputy treasurer of the WP, a Mr Png, said: “We have to think carefully about our response”.

They shld realise that their comments collectively give the game away. Why so stupid leh, WP Sec-Gen, members and Mrs Yaw?

All I will report is that WP high command and those who should be in the know are saying nothing in private to friendly, influential outsiders (including prominent bloggers: I’m neither a friend nor influential) or “lesser mortals” WP supporters. As they are also saying nothing in public, I conclude that the WP’s attitude is, “Your problem Yaw. You solve it”.

Problem for the WP is that the silence implies that there is a problem that Yaw has to resolve, whatever it is.

But if Yaw is the dad of a bastard (albeit a Dragon), the WP can’t escape collateral damage. He was possibly the most trusted lieutenant of Sec-Gen Low, and if he was as rampant a stag as alleged by TRE, it casts doubt on Low’s judgement. And if Low didn’t know that his Kim Jong-il look-a-like aide was as horny a stag as alleged, it shows the lack of his of intel on members.

NSP

The old guard can’t believe that the newbies are fighting among themselves and with the old guard.

Hazel Poa (Sec-Gen) and her hubbie Tony and other newbies are spitting mad at Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss (VP) who has the support of the people’s celebrity, Nicole Seah. Ms Chong is refusing (and has refused for over six months) to declare her personal wealth. (Reminder: she is hot-shot corporate and shipping lawyer, or so it is claimed. Detractors say it is a two partners and no slaves, legal assistants, firm).

All central executive members have to submit this declaration to the government in order to get the licence for NSP’s newsletter renewed.

Why she refuses to give this declaration or step down, and why Nicole Seah is supporting her is a matter of speculation. One mean spirited view is that she and Nicole realise that moving to NSP was a big mistake and they want to jump ship again. If they leave when Tan Jee Say sets up his party (the two gals got crush on him, it is alleged), there is a danger that they will be perceived as serial, air head rats: first KennethJ, then Goh Meng Seng. If NSP was in disarray, they could excuse their leaving by blaming the NSP mess.

The old guard kicked out one Goh Meng Seng for failing to deliver a breakthrough. He got his revenge. The newbies he brought in are fighting each other and the Malay Bureau (his creation) and the old guard. Want to destroy an organisation, give GMS an executive role: juz kidding.

TJS

Glad to read in ST confirmation of a story I heard: he is pursuing the shared resource centre for the Opposition that he was thinking about before the last general election.

As he is turning 58 soon, why is he working so hard? “Relax. Watching over yr daughters and making sure they hook rich China men and is hard work. Do it well, and can be richer than Peter Lim”.

But seeing that that Dynamic NSP Duo (Hazel and Tony) are helping him recruit people for the centre, does it mean that he is giving Jeannette Chong and Nicole Seah, the brush off? Scholars like the company of other scholars, not pretty air heads who are serial hoppers? Will hope to find out more in the next week of feasting, dicing and Black Jack. No, dicing is not Roulette, it’s Backgammon.

SDP

Michelle Lee is expected to leave SDP soon even if TJS doesn’t set up up a new party for her to join. She didn’t join other SDP members in CNY Chinatown walkabout. She joined the SPP, NSP, RP and TJS in their Ang Moh Kio walkabout which SDP officially declared it wouldn’t join (Danny, the teh tarik bear, doesn’t like competition from Nicole, the people’s princess? Hey Danny, you are cuddily and furry but not sexy enough for boys to fantasise having sex with), clashed with its long planned Chinatown walkabout.

Others

KennethJ is rumoured to be looking for a job in financial services. No surprises there as he was a hedgie and hasn’t been working for a few years, dedicating his time and efforts to politics and keeping dad’s memory alive. What is surprising is that he is rumoured to be looking for a London-based job. Trying to make a graceful exit? Whither RP, which dad founded? RIP both RP and KennetJ’s political ambitions?

And finally, how can I forget Goh Meng Seng? He after all has many, many enemies saying nasty things about him. The least nasty is that he is desperately waiting for a phone call from Lina Chiam who has said SPP “will continue to seek new passionate and talented individuals with the right aptitude and who will pursue the opposition cause cohesively.” His enemies say he has told Lina that he is willing to be co-opted into SPP mgt committee. Err wonder if Lina thinks he has the X factors she is seeking? Somehow looking at his CV, I doubt she would. Anyway, SPP’s loss is TOC’s gain, or is it bane? If he joins SPP, he would have to resign from Team TOC. The Chinese section of TOC that he founded to large self-publicity seems kinda quiet.

Taz all folks. An update next week. One more week of feasting and gambling. Take care, drink or drive, not both.

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three bird-women, who lured passing sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck and death on the rocks around their island.

In the S’pore context, the Sirens are those anonymous voices on the Internet who lure men with large egos and deep pockets to enter politics as voices of the oppressed, only to abandon them to ridicule, shame and monetary loss when elections are held.

When KennethJ (remember him and the Reform Party?) was thinking aloud of entering politics, many anonymous voices on the internet encouraged him to emulate his father, JBJ, to stand up and speak out for the oppressed. When he did in 2009, even more voices came out to tell him that he was their hero and they would support him.

I was one of the few Cassandras who posted anonymously on TOC that he should be aware of the Sirens. I cited the example of one Tan Kin Lian who in 2008 received emails asking him to stand for election in the coming 2011 presidential election. He then organised a petition asking for 100,000 people to petition him to stand for the presidency. In 2009, he got less than 1,500 names and renounced all presidential ambitions.

Well we know now how much support KennethJ received. Very few joined the RP, and most of them left soon afterwards. The share of the votes RP got in the 2011 GE was pathetic. The Sirens made a fool of him.

Then there was TKL. Not satisfied with being played out by the internet, he flip-flopped (I am thinking of standing, I will stand, I am thinking of standing) his way into the presidential election. And was humiliated when he lost his deposit. Did the Sirens fix him, hehe, snigger, snigger. Funniest of all, he and, Goh Meng Seng, are in denial over his loss. TKL’s media statement and GMS’s comments (see comments).

Coming back to Tan Jee Say. His performance was very credible. He got 25% of the votes. The Sirens failed to humiliate him after enchanting him to stand for president. True he budgeted S$200,000 for his campaign and we don’t know how much he got in donations. But waz money for an ex- investment banker active in the early to mid-1990s (I was only an equities dealer and salesman but I made more than enough to spend most of noughties unemployed) and an ex-Scholar?

The Sirens are now telling him to set up his own party. Still trying to fix him.

If I were him, I’d give them the finger. There are a certain number of voters who will always vote for the anti-PAP candidate. In the late 1960s this was abt 10% of the voters. After the 2006 GE, this figure had become abt 20%. After the 2011 GE, there was an estimates that this could be as high as 31% of the voters, with the most conservative estimate remaining at 20%.

Taking into consideration, the votes that went to Spoiler Tan, TJS could have gotten 30% of the hard core opposition vote, almost all of 31%. In a GRC or SMC in a GE, this would mean certain defeat, if the fight was between the PAP and an opposition candidate. If the hard core were only 20%, then taking into account 5%-Tan, he could have gotten 10% of the swing voters. Still not enough swing votes to win in a straight fight.

OI course, the Sirens would sing that 30% is a gd base to start from but look at how long it took the WP to win a GRC, over a decade. And the WP had very complacent PMs, and MPs in Aljunied. And TJS isn’t young.

At his age, he would be better off counting his dividends, and making sure that his very pretty daughters date only the “right” boys. And joining me for walks in the neighbourhood. Lots of nice areas to walk in Frankel Estate, Siglap and Marine Parade.

I didn’t want to write the first part of this piece because the presidential election is over and Tony Tan has been sworn in as the new president. Let’s move on. But the behaviour of Tan Kin Lian and some of his supporters annoys me no end. Hence the first part of the piece.

Tan Kin Lian and some of his supporters are behaving as though the election is still on. They are trying to prove that although he lost his deposit and cost S’poreans the opportunity to have a president that was not the PAP’s preferred candidate, it wasn’t his fault.

The blame is put on Yahoo! (Who other than TKL takes online polls seriously, certainly not Dr Tan Cheng Bock. Otherwise he would be complaining to TOC for a survey that showed him last) and Tan Jee Say (Hey he got 25% of all the votes cast, 10 percentage points behind the winner and runner-up, and 20 percentage points more than TKL).

For those 95% of S’poreans that didn’t vote for him, there is no need to feel sorry for him for losing his deposit. Even his supporters should not feel sorry that he lost his deposit. The reason?

He loves publicity. Go ask anyone who has worked for him. And the election gave him lots of it.

Spending $48,000 is money well spent on a cost benefit analysis. Look at the coverage he got on TV: MediaCorp debates etc, RazorTV and TOC TV. And all those pixs and articles in print media and on the internet. And then there is radio.

True his campaign cost $120,000 but then the balance of $72,000 is other people’s money, not his. Even if it were his money, $120,000 is peanuts compared to the millions NTUC Income must have spent on TV ads and print ads featuring Tan Kin Lian when he was CEO of Income.

But then maybe TKL wants publicity free of charge, like when he was CEO of Income. Other people’s money, but his publicity.

BTW, the blogger Think Happiness, a TKL groupie, is not AWOL, hiding in shame for endorsing TKL. He assures me he was away. He will be writing again soon.

That leaves only Goh Meng Seng and De Leviathan unaccounted for. Hope to hear from them soon, esp from GMS.

Seventy percent of voters rejected his idea of using the Elected Presidency to provide “some real checks and balances”. They didn’t want, by the back door, a separate centre of power formed from, or advised by people, who could not win seats in parliament. http://singaporealternatives.blogspot.com/

What does he think abt his PE reverses, and the chaos in TKL’s campaigning? Does he accept any reponsibility for the latter? I still get indignant when I recall TKL and his team attending a memorial service in their campaign tee-shirts. And chuckle when I recall him squeezing out of his car. And the car was a Jaguar, certainly not a car of the people. He should have stuck to his Toyota, a People’s Car.